Sharknado, a movie about flying sharks attacking Los Angeles during a tornado, was a hit on Twitter after its U.S. debut Thursday. It premieres in Canada on Space Friday at 9 p.m. ET.

Why make a movie about a regular shark attack when you can make a movie about sharks attacking during a wild tornado?

That seems to be the premise behind Syfy’s latest original movie, Sharknado. It’s a violent thriller that sees Los Angeles under attack from thousands of flying sharks, and the likes of Ian Ziering and Tara Reid, of all people, trying to save the city by blowing up the sharks.

“The storm’s coming and it’s coming fast!” Ziering’s character, who is ironically named Fin, yells to a full bar in the trailer. He does this just before a shark and what looks like a mini tsunami bursts through the bar window.

Later in the trailer, Ziering shoots a shark out of the air with a gun and attacks another with a chainsaw.

“We can’t just wait here while sharks are raining down on us!” Ziering’s character says.

Sharknado has indeed created a storm as it premiered in the U.S. on Syfy Thursday, gathering the kind of cult following that Samuel L. Jackson’s equally ridiculous Snakes on a Plane enjoyed. The buzz has been amplified by social media websites like Twitter.

Canadians will get to see what the buzz is about on Friday at 9 p.m., when Sharknado airs on Space.

“Sharknado blew up on Twitter last night,” said Rachel Goldstein-Couto, director of specialty programming with Bell Media, which owns Space. “We expect it will blow Canadian viewers out of the water tonight on Space.”

was mentioned was mentioned 1,058 times per minute on Twitter a minute after Thursday’s U.S. premiere began, according to Twitter’s data. By 10:58 p.m. ET, when the premiere was coming to an end, Sharknadowas mentioned 5,032 times per minute.

To put those numbers in context, Twitter reports there were 1,150 Sharknado tweets per every million people in New York City.

Tara Reid, who you may remember from a slew of teen movies in the early 2000s, was mentioned 373 times per minute at one point during Thursday’s American premiere.

“I actually can’t wait for @sharknado it might be even better then snakes on a plane !!! Lol ;) I hope you will have as much fun as I had,” Reid tweeted on Thursday afternoon.

Ziering, who used to be on Beverly Hills 90210, tweeted that he was busy performing at Chippendales on Thursday night and would watch the movie on Friday.

“When I read this scipt [sic] I thought, chainsawing out of a shark, repelling, guns, sharks, tornadoes, I’ve gotta do this,” tweeted Ziering.

Sharknado generated lots of Twitter chatter, but the movie itself may not have generated very good ratings. The Atlantic says early Nielsen numbers show Sharknado was only watched by slightly more than 1 million people and scored a measly 0.4 rating among people in the key 18 to 49 demographic.

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